Riu Jalisco

Great staff, engaging entertainment team, clean beach and on par with other Riu's I've been to. Special shoutout to Arturo in food and beverage as well as Sara, Luis and Bruno on the entertainment team! Resort is about 30-40 mins from the airport and 1 hour drive to downtown Puerto Vallarta. We took an Uber to get to and from the downtown - it was safe and cost about $300 pesos to be dropped off in the middle of the downtown area. Nightly entertainment was a hit and miss. The kids show started at 8pm followed by the speciality show at 9pm. The nightclub would open at 11pm, which left you waiting an hour between the end of show and club opening. The night club Pacha needs some serious renovations.. the smell was horrific. We would laugh at the many people who would enter the club and leave immediately due to the smell. The main big event this resort has is called the White Party which happens on Fridays. Unfortunately our flight got in late on Friday and left before the night began the week after but it looked like a good time from the videos displayed. Beach is nice and clean. Many vendors walk around trying to sell you stuff. Not necessary to wake up early to reserve beach or pool chairs as there was plenty. To my surprise, there was no mosquitoes, not even at night! I didn't get a single insect bite and I am known to lather on the bug repellent. The main buffet was most of the time better than the speciality restaurants. No reservations for restaurants was required, all was first come, first serve. With exception of the steakhouse, the other restaurants were buffet style which was surprising for me. The Steakhouse was delicious and the Italian served a big piece of delicious salmon. I hope they put more money into improving their a la carte restaurants. Rooms were adequate and clean. Overall good experience!

Been to a few Riu hotels now and this was up to their standard. Nice room which had been decorated recently. The food in the main restaurant is very good, no need to go to the speciality restaurants especially Piazza which was the worst Riu restaurant I have been to. Actually left the food it was that bad and the service was poor as well here. Staff work hard all around the hotel, this is standard for a Riu hotel. Beware of the the waiter who thinks it’s funny to clap loudly behind your back, sorry it was not funny but quite alarming. As with many of this type of hotels other guests slamming doors being loud at night is a curse but well done Riu for telling our next door neighbour that loud music and shouting at 2.00 am was unacceptable.

The shows are terrible. Party night is the worst. a person pretending to be a DJay yells at you fir 2 hours, It is far to loud and not entertaining. You cannot escape it. Even if you go down to the beach and walk far away. If you say here, use this night to go someplace else. Hotel is nice, beach is great, but entertainment is not entertaining.